Arp request and whohas

[posterboy]

I have AT&T cable here. Iptraf shows a constant barrage of ARP request 24.XX.XX.XX from some eth MAC address, (a constant) and, then at some interval, a barrage of Whohas 24.XX.XX.XX. This is quite normal, I know, been going on for years, but I have never understood what was really happening, with either one. Can someone explain what this is about? Thank you, Ray

[X_console]

Someone in Networking could answer this, so that's where it's moving to.

[fracture]

I believe this is the AT&T router seeing who's still "awake". When I've seen it it's always coming from the network gateway. The gateway must try to keep it's arp cache entirely up to date, avoiding any stale entries.

On a DHCP network this might have to do with expiring leases, but I know it even happens on the static ip network I'm currently connected to.